Is Podcast Effective Way To Generate Demand?

Podcasts are popular right now, especially as a way to generate demand. According to this, by 2016, 21% of the U.S. population had reportedly listened to at least one podcast in the last month – up from 17% the year before and just 9% in 2008 – which makes it a great tool for demand generation.

Most of the business with an updated marketing team has a podcast. If they don’t, they ensure interviews on other known podcasts.

In short, podcasts can be an effective way to generate demand for your products and services along with providing an opportunity to gather engaged leads.

50% of all US homes are podcast fans (Nielsen, Aug 2017)

In this post, we will talk about how podcasts should be used as a way to generate demand and capture qualified leads.

So, let’s get started

Use a persuasive call to actions

Call to actions are the most significant factor when it comes to a demand generation campaign and podcasts are no different. You need to be strategic about where to include them and what to ask your audience to do.

Where to put a call to action items – at the beginning, midpoint or end

It is difficult to get your visitors to read through an entire blog post. Similarly, not all of your listeners are going to stick with you until the end of the podcast. They are going to forward it or leave in between.

So, if you are including CTAs only at the end of your podcast, you WILL be missing out on a considerable amount of leads. That said, any visitor, who does listen till the end is highly engaged and it is only reasonable to put a CTA at the end.

What about putting them in the beginning? Good, you asked.

When I say beginning, it does not mean you start off a podcast by selling or asking visitors to do something. Instead, you can use a CTA before you go into the main portion of the content. Without sounding salesy, you can also insert one CTA in between the podcast. You can look up at the average listening time and include the CTA just before that point.

If you implement these tips, your podcast could most certainly help you with demand generation and generate qualified leads.

What to say in your call to action

Your visitors might still be in the early stage of the buyer’s cycle, so it is best to stay away from sounding “sales”.

Yes, podcasts are a way to generate demand, but, you need to be tactful. Instead of asking them to check out your product or click on a link, ask them to check out a blog post or download a PDF which is behind a lead generation form. This way, you are helping them relieve their pain points and engage effectively.

But, it does not end there. You cannot simply ask your visitors to check out a piece of content you have created. CTAs should also demonstrate how valuable the content is and what your visitor stands to gain. If possible, you should also talk about how the content can benefit their business.

Invite customers to your podcast

Not only is this a great relationship building tactic, but it will also increase your credibility and get your prospective buyers to trust you more. The fact that you are talking to your customers openly shows how approachable and understanding your business is (which, today, every buyer appreciates).

Besides this, in a podcast interview like this, your customers can share how, why and the what behind your product which answers all the queries your prospective buyer might have. This is a persuasive way to convince prospective buyers to think about investing in a product.

Also, when you talk to your customers, you will learn about their pain points and perspective. This can help you with other marketing campaigns as well and boost lead generation.

Host podcast on customer pain points

It is important that your podcast is about your customers and not you. So, focus episodes on specific customer pain points and explore ways to overcome them – with and without your product.

In such an episode, you want to give several options to overcome a pain point and one of which will be your product. The sales element should be subtle, so avoid filling up the episode about your products/services.

Make sharing easy

It is not necessary that your visitors are always on their laptop while listening to the podcast. They may be working, driving or caught up with something else. This is what makes lead generation through podcasts difficult.

Did you know that 22% listen to while driving (in a vehicle), same as 2017?

So, ensure that your CTA’s give an easy way out to register, subscribe, download or access any other content. You can ask them to send you a message (a short “yes” or “no” to a phone number works) or an email. But, the phone number or the email should be easy to remember.

Author Kartik Jha

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